Japan VCs back hair colouring chain
A group of Japanese VC investors including Global Brain have provided JPY 1.1bn (USD 8.4m) in Series A funding to Fast Beauty, operator of hair colouring shop chain Fufu.
Global Brain is investing via a JPY 5bn fund backed entirely by local brewing major Kirin. The VC firm manages a string of single-LP funds in this vein, the latest of which launched in February with JPY 5bn from Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance.
Investors in the Series A also include DBJ Capital, a unit of Development Bank of Japan, Future Creation Capital, QR Investment, and Yokohama Capital, an arm of Bank of Yokohama. The latter is investing via its JPY 3bn Hope Fund, which has at least two other banks as LPs. Yokohama’s latest VC fund closed on JPY 6bn last month.
They were joined by Link and Motivation, a tech-driven business consultancy, Mass Holdings, a beauty industry advertising agency, and Yamada Pharmaceuticals, a shampoo maker founded in 2010.
Fast Beauty claims to be the leading player in its niche, having served more than 3m customers since its inception in 2014 via 118 shops nationwide. Much of the offering is about speed and convenience; the idea is to drop in for a quick hair colouring – purportedly 60 minutes – while shopping.
A tight specialisation on hair dying – in contrast to full-service salons – is believed to translate into quality and efficiency advantages. Global Brain, DBJ, and Kirin highlighted upside related to Japan’s ageing trend. The fresh capital will go toward expanding the store footprint, according to a statement.
D4V, NextBlue, and Mizuho Capital provided JPY 500m in seed funding in late 2021. D4V, also known as Design For Ventures, is a joint venture of Japanese seed investor Genuine Startups and US design consultancy Ideo. NextBlue also positions itself globally with offices in Tokyo and Berlin.
Trendy beauty sub-categories represent a discrete investor play in Japan. For example, private equity firms CLSA Capital Partners and Integral Corporation have both targeted the tinted contact lenses space, respectively backing El Dorado in 2017 and T-Garden in 2020.
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